This week I want to talk (again) about putting your findings in context. I mentioned this back in May in “How far back?” – http://familytreeblogs.com/kate/2014/05/04/how-far-back/ .
One way to find out more about a particular period in time, of course, is to spend hours in a library: but you may like to consider MOOCs.
This rather unlovely (to my mind) acronym stands for Massive Open Online Courses. These are online courses provided for no cost by various platforms, and cover a variety of subjects, which you can study at home.
A full list of MOOCs available for the next 30 days is here: http://www.mooc-list.com/ (the list is updated every month).
I’ve recently completed courses hosted by FutureLearn on ‘Literature Of The English Country House’, ‘England In The Time Of Richard III’ and ‘Developing Your Research Project’, which have all been jolly useful and very interesting. Upcoming FutureLearn courses which may be of interest to amateur historians include:
Irish Lives in War and Revolution: Exploring Ireland’s History 1912 – 1923 (6 week course starting 1 September- recommended study time 5 hours per week)
World War I: Trauma and Memory (3 week course starting 3 November – recommended study time 2 hours per week)
World War I: Changing Faces of Heroism (3 week course starting 27 October – recommended study time 4 hours per week)
World War I: Paris 1919 – A New World Order? (3 week course starting 13 October – recommended study time 5 hours per week)
World War I: Aviation Comes of Age (3 week course starting 20 October – recommended study time 3 hours per week)
Shakespeare and his World (10 week course starting 29 September – recommended study time 5 hours per week)
Details of upcoming FutureLearn courses can be found here: https://www.futurelearn.com/
